Dinner for the weary kind

Hello friends!

The closer I get to my graduation date, the more frenetic my life gets. I’m juggling school, homework, internship, and a social life, and the result is something like this:

After an hour and a half commute, the last thing I feel like doing is making dinner. That’s when I turn to my easiest go-to recipe. It’s four ingredients, fifteen minutes, rather healthy, and is an awful lot better than fast food.

Greek Chicken Cutlets:

4 frozen chicken cutlets

1 pint grape tomatoes

1/2 cup feta cheese

Mint leaves

Salt and Pepper to taste.

If you don’t have a bag of these in your freezer, you need to get one.

You can cook them and use them in pasta, salads, or just eat them with your bare hands. It’s the most versatile piece of chicken ever. I get mine from trader joes, for about $6.99.

I defrosted my cutlets in the microwave, and gave them a liberal coating of salt and pepper. It was about this time that Amy decided to play a game of ‘the floor is lava.’

She stayed up there for quite a while.

When I don’t feel like dealing with the hassle of a pan and oil, I bust out my panini press. It stands in as a quick grill quite well. I laid the defrosted cutlets on the press, then clamped those suckers down.

Caitlyn was worried I was going to clamp Amy’s tail in the panini press.

Amy slipped a bit here.

While the cutlets cooked, I sliced the grape tomatoes in half.

Warning: If you puncture a tomato with the tip of your knife, it will squirt you in the eye. Maybe you’ll overreact and throw a small kitchen tantrum. It happens.

If I were a tomato, I’d spit at me too.

By the time I rinsed out my eyes, the chicken was cooked through. On a related note, is anything more satisfying than grill marks?

You’re beautiful, it’s true.

I smothered them in the sliced tomatoes, and topped it with a hefty sprinkling of cheese.

We bought the fat free feta because it’s cheaper. True story.

Usually I would garnish this with mint leaves, which are delicious, but…well…I forgot to buy them. So that’s awkward.

Wow, even on your weary days you get fancy. My go to meal is usually just a piece of toast with peanut butter and whatever fruit I can find in the house…if we don’t have bread, maybe “arroz con leche” if I feel like making rice. It’s rice with milk (in my case, almond or coconut milk) and cinnamon. I usually add a few sprinkles of ginger and nutmeg as well, and some salt. Throw it all in a bowl and microwave it, and wa-La!

Love it! Never thought of using the press for chicken…BRILLIANT! I do a very similar go-to, last minute meal. Chicken breasts with garlic salt and lemon pepper on the grill for 12 minutes total. While those are cooking I whip up a salad with whatever veggies (mixed lettuces, arugula, baby kale, toms, asparagus, red pepper, red onion) I have. Add goat or feta cheese and kalamata olives and homemade champagne or red wine vinaigrette! Healthy and nom in 15 minutes! Oh yes, and the wine helps loads…and it’s Julia-esque!